Just as his new film The 15:17 to Paris chugs into theaters, Clint Eastwood is circling THE MULE at Warner Bros. and Imperative Entertainment, the Tracking Board has exclusively learned. The Hollywood legend plans to direct, produce and star as 90-year-old drug courier Leo Sharp, according to multiple sources.

The New York Times Magazine ran a story on Sharp in June 2014, and by November that same year, Imperative had acquired the article by Sam Dolnick, and tapped Ruben Fleischer (Gangster Squad) to direct and produce the film. At the time, Deadline reported that the producers were looking for a writer to tell this peculiar story, and oh, what a story it is!

Sharp was an award-winning horticulturist and decorated WWII veteran known for his prized day lilies when he was busted for running drugs for Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, and sent to prison at the age of 90. He was transporting $3 million worth of cocaine through Michigan in his beat-up old pickup truck when he was arrested by the DEA. Sharp was sentenced to just three years after his lawyer argued that his client’s dementia sent him down the wrong path.

We’ve heard that Eastwood’s Gran Torino scribe Nick Schenk wrote the initial draft of the script, which has since been rewritten by Weeds writer Dave Holstein.

Should Eastwood officially sign on, he would likely produce via his Malpaso banner along with Imperative’s Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas. The Mule is expected to be Eastwood’s next film at Warner Bros., which has been the filmmaker’s home for years

Bradley Cooper may be reuniting with Clint Eastwood for his next film.

Sources tell Variety that Cooper is in talks to join Eastwood in “The Mule,” Eastwood’s next directing gig that he also plans to star in.

The film is a co-production between Warner Bros. and Imperative Entertainment, and will mark Eastwood’s first time acting since the 2012 baseball drama “Trouble With the Curve.” This could be one of his last on-screen appearances.

The movie follows 90-year-old drug courier Leo Sharp, an award-winning horticulturist and decorated WWII veteran known for his prized daylilies who is busted for running drugs for Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, and sent to prison. He was transporting $3 million worth of cocaine through Michigan in his beat-up pickup truck when he was arrested by the DEA. Sharp was sentenced to just three years in jail after his lawyer argued that his client’s dementia sent him down the wrong path.

Cooper will play the DEA agent who arrests Sharp.

Eastwood will also produce via his Malpaso banner, along with Imperative’s Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas.

Cooper has been busy putting the finishing touches on his directorial debut, “A Star Is Born,” but sources say he had been weighing what would be his next project.

Cooper had been linked to “The Mule” for some time as Eastwood is a big fan of Cooper’s after working together on “American Sniper.”

I'm fan of late Eastwood movies (Unforgiven is one of the greatest Westerns of all time IMO).
Like nearly everyone his age, he appears to be running out of gas.
God bless him...I hope we have many more great movies from Mr. Eastwood before he leaves the stage.

__________________The incurrence of fascism doesn’t happen overnight. But by the time you notice it’s there, it’s probably too late.
What once may have seemed unthinkable is easily assimilated into the hustle and bustle of daily life. - Rian D.

Laurence Fishburne, Alison Eastwood, Taissa Farmiga and Ignacio Serricchio have also boarded the production, which began shooting Monday in Atlanta.

Eastwood is directing the project and is also starring, marking the first time since 2012’s Trouble With the Curve that the veteran Hollywood actor will appear onscreen.

The story, per the studio, focuses on Earl Stone, a man in his 80s who is broke, alone and facing foreclosure of his business when he is offered a job that simply requires him to drive. What he discovers is that he has just signed on as a drug courier for a Mexican cartel.

Stone does the job so well that his cargo increases exponentially, and he is assigned a handler. But he also comes on the radar of hard-charging DEA agent. And even as his money problems become a thing of the past, Stone’s past mistakes start to weigh heavily on him, and it’s uncertain if he’ll have time to right those wrongs before law enforcement, or the cartel’s enforcers, catch up to him.

Eastwood is playing Stone while Cooper is a hard-charging DEA agent hot on his tail.

In what is said to be a meaty role, Wiest will play Stone’s ex-wife. Pena is the enforcer.

Nick Schenk, who wrote Eastwood’s Gran Torino, and Dave Holstein (Weeds, I'm Dying Up Here) worked on the script.

Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas of Imperative Entertainment (All the Money in the World) are producing with Eastwood. Tim Moore, Kristina Rivera and Jessica Meier are also producing.

Wiest, repped by ICM Partners, is the veteran actress who won Academy Awards for Hannah and Her Sisters as well as Bullets Over Broadway, and was also nominated for an Oscar for her work in Ron Howard’s Parenthood (not to overlook her work in 1980s classic The Lost Boys.) She currently stars in the CBS ensemble drama Life in Pieces.

Pena, who will appear in the next season of Narcos and recently starred in Warners' 12 Strong, next shows up on the big-screen in Ant-Man and the Wasp. He is repped by CAA and Management 360.

I doubt it. He'll turn 88 on May 31st, but he tends to move quickly from circling a project to filming it (sometimes to his detriment, as with his latest film).

This began shooting this week, so I have to quote myself here to affirm that he does still indeed move fast from circling a project to filming it. And if a project stalls out, like A Star is Born did (he is still a listed producer on that film), he quickly finds another.